By Farhan Haq, IPS, 20 March 1998. Libyan pleas for a
neutral trial and for the easing of some aspects of the
sanctions are gaining wider support. The debate, the first
public review of Council sanctions imposed on Libya in
1992, was marked both by efforts to find a compromise
solution for the trial, and resistance from the U.S. to
anything less than a trial in Britain or the US.

Editorial by Parveez Syed, Shanti News, Monday 3 August
1998. In February 1998 the ICJ at the Hague ruled that it
has jurisdiction to hear Libya’s complaints against
Britain in connection with the bombing of a Pan Am jet
over Lockerbie. Then in March 1998 ICJ ruled against US
and British objections to the court’s
involvement. Can the accused expect a fair trial; would
the verdict be acceptable to the US-UK politicians, and
what about appeal court?

Analysis by Farhan Haq, IPS, 1 March 1999. After more
than six months of haggling, the UN and the US impatient
with Libya’s sluggish response to a proposed trial
of two Libyan bombing suspects. Despite threats of tougher
sanctions, Libya, Tripoli still unwilling to extradite the
two to stand trial in the Netherlands for the 1988 bombing
of Pan American flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

By Gerard Seenan, The Guardian (London),
Wednesday 25 October 2000, Crucial new evidence released to
defence lawyers in the Lockerbie trial will have “the
greatest conceivable effect” on the proceedings, the
court in the Netherlands heard yesterday.

By Hans Koechler, 3 Feburary 2001. Report on and
evaluation of the Lockerbie Trial conducted by the special
Scottish Court in the Netherlands at Kamp van Zeist by
Dr. Hans Kvchler, University Professor, international
observer of the International Progress Organization
nominated by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
on the basis of Security Council resolution 1192
(1998).

Panafrican News Agency (Dakar), 23 March
2001. Libya’s General People’s Congress has
commended the Paris Court of Cessation for “resisting
pressure” from what it described as “Zionist circles
and forces at the service of injustice”. It had decided
on 13 March, decided to close a case whose sole target was
the leader of the Libyan Revolution, Col. Muammar
Kadhafi.

By William Paul, Scotland on Sunday, 8 April
2001. Despite disquiet, a consensus
arose that due process had been followed and evidence had been
heard in open court. Now, however, the devastating
criticism by a world-renowned expert is a monumental
embarrassment to the judges, the Crown, and to the UN,
which brokered the understanding that allowed the trial to
go ahead after so many years of the British and American
governments’ refusing to compromise.

Sunday Herald (Scotland), 8
April 2001. The United Nations has savaged the Crown
Office’s handling of the Lockerbie trial, claiming
the outcome was rigged through the unfair suppression of
evidence; it was politically influenced by the USA; and
the court had no grounds to return a guilty verdict.

By William Paul, Scotland on Sunday, 8 April
2001. A UN observer at the Lockerbie trial branded the verdicts
in the case “unfair, irrational and politically
motivated”, saying they should be overturned on appeal.
Professor Hans Koechler, a world-renowned expert in international
law, claims there was no basis in evidence for the guilty
verdict against one of the accused.